Weekend Roundup

She's Making a List, Checking it Twice....No It's Not Christmas

I thoroughly enjoyed my birthday weekend. We don't do just birth'days' round these parts. We milk it for as long as we can.

Friday was great all around, including the pretty new cosmo glasses sister Di gave me- love 'em. After we got home from my parents and the birthday celebration there, we cut a rug or two to some fun youtube selections including a little Cee Lo green and Tony Bennet.  We do enjoy a dance around the living room and kitchen, at some point during most weekends. 

The rest of the weekend went just as well. Here's some things that made for a good birthday weekend: 

• Gar built a table for my new printer. I will be painting is shortly. It's pretty basic, but that's all I need.

• Weather was nice so he got to work outside and I got to have the campfire I wanted on Saturday night.

• Neighborhoodlums Sandee and Gerry swung by the fire.

• Sandee made Stratford on a Crouton, one of my all time favorite appetizers, and brought me a gift. I'll share the Straford recipe the next time I make it.

• Neighborhoodlums Tom and Joanie had our neighbors-in-law Carol and Emile (Joanie's brother and his wife) over for dinner and they all popped by the campfire.  Not only that, but Joanie and Tom brought me a Carvel Ice Cream Cake for my bday. YUM.

• This was big for Carol and Emile, because they're about ready to head back to Florida for the Winter, and though I thought it was a perfect fall day, others thought it was freezing! So cold, they had to warm their tushes by the fire.

• I thought that it was a glorious night for a campfire with friends.  Lucan enjoyed too.

• When we went in, we caught the rest of the Bruins game. They took care of business and beat Toronto 7-0, and our 'kid' Tyler Sequin scored his first hat-trick. This made me very happy.

• Sunday morning we decided to go out for some breakfast and headed to Portsmouth.  When we got there it was such a beautiful day we decided to enjoy the day and take a walk, knowing our favorite little irish place would be open for lunch by the time we were done.

• We met the lovliest man, Adrienne, while were enjoying the views from the bridge. He'd grown up in Kittery, Maine, just on the other side of the river, but had been living in Texas for years. He'd just moved back to be closer to his family. The three of us must have talked about the Seacoast and traveling for nearly 30 minutes. 

• Our favorite table at RiRa was just waiting for us in the corner when we got there, and so was a our favorite server, Michael- a lovely Irish lad.  Check this link out for nice interior pictures of the fantastic dome at RiRa from a previous visit. Back to this weekend's visit.......Michael brought me a big pot of tea, and once I'd promptly finished that I went for the gusto. Look at those biggo honkin' olives! Briny and delicious and just what I wanted.

• I don't know who the guy is behind me, but he's not getting my bloody mary or my irish paper. Gar and I love sitting down at RiRa and reading the Irish paper. 

• We both ordered fish and chips........SO good. 

• As if the beer battered fish and chips weren't enough, they give you both tartar sauce and rose marie sauce. It's an Irish thing and it's good for dippin' your fries.

• Happy husband = happy wife. Don't come between a man and his pint of Guinness.

• After we finished lunch, we stopped at McKinnon's and talked to the Rick the Butcher.  It was Gar's first time to the store and he was impressed. We left with lots of good stuff, including the pork roast I cooked last night.  We followed up dinner with the aforementioned Carvel Ice Cream Cake- a very tasty ending.

As I said, a pretty darn good weekend all in all. Thanks to all who made it special, including my online pals and well wishers. 

Sunset Meadows

Just as we were starting the campfire Saturday evening, the sun was going down.  The focus is a little off, but the color makes it worth posting this picture anways.

I hope your weekends were just as good. Did you get to do anything special or out of the ordinary? Did you at least get to kick back and relax? Please say yes.

Have a fantastic Monday.  I'm going to do some painting.  Hopefully it dries quick so I can work on setting up the new printer a little later.

The Pretty and The Not So Pretty

Blue Sky Day

Yup. It's gorgeous out.  Went across the street to Tom and Joan's to see how the boys were making out on the 'ball joint' replacement for Gar's truck. I was distracted by the beauty all around. Joanie's garden is blooming away. Pair that with Tom's awesome  whirlygigs that he makes himself from spare parts, and you've got one colorful thing happening.

Joanie's hydrangea is monstrous and in full bloom.Time for me to go cut this year's bunch and dry to replace the ones currently in my Waterford vase.

How about a close up of the hydrangea......the ombre coloring on each petal is really something else. Bright pink fading to cream. Sigh.

Color everywhere!

And see those tomatoes? I walked away with a bag full of cherries and Romas last night. Thanks Joan and Tom. Tom's not big on tomatoes. Poor Tom. More for us. It is a good thing Joanie had some to share because yesterday I went out to pick some of ours and I found a chippy having a feast on three of my ripe Romas! Oh sure, chipmunks are cute, but not when they're eating your Romas. Nope. Not at all. I gave him a good talking to and then picked the rest of the ripe ones. Along with Joan's they're going into the oven to roast today. Then into the freezer so we can enjoy garden fresh roasted tomatoes all winter. More on that process tomorrow.

One more shot of the sunflower. Huge. Bright. Happy. Striking against the blue sky day.

You can't see it in this picture, but smack dab in the middle was a lone bee having a field day.

Smart bee.

The Garage

Gar was getting ready to head over to Tom's this morning to work on his truck. G,Tom and Gerry did a little prep work on it last night: jacking it up, taking the tires off, lubricating the brake and ball joint area to make things easier this morning.

I kept hearing this squealing noise and thought it was our water pipes having an issue while Gar showered. I yelled into him, 'what's that noise'? It wasn't the shower. It was Gerry's truck brakes seizing up. He'd driven over to Tom's to work on the brakes and they decided they didn't want to cooperate at all anymore.

So the trucks were lined  up for fixin'.

Tom and Garman had obviously both gotten the memo about the garage uniform of the day. Green shirt, jeans and boots.

Now, you might think the next picture is of Garrett 'having a go' at taking apart the brakes to get to the ball joints. However, if you look closely---way back there, you will see Gerry's truck standing its ground. It wasn't moving. Not going anywhere. How do you like them apples?

Gerry eventually got it to move and off he went, probably to the dealership to say "Guess you guys didn't do such a great job checking out my break problem when I had this truck towed here two weeks ago."  He was not a happy camper, but I thought he was handling it relatively well.

So, that's pretty much the short and tall of it in the neighborhood today. I got some bookwork done yesterday. Unfortunately not all. That's my mission for the day.

Beyond that- roast tomatoes, take some product shots for Bates Mercantile Co., list the items in the store, get out and enjoy the sun, have a little swim, and and have the turkey tettrazini I made yesterday that we didn't eat because Tom grilled up some pork loin. I mean, who can argue with that?

Hope your Saturday is going better than Gerry's truck.

Later Gators.

Blueberry Heaven

This Morning

My neighbor Joanie is a special education teacher most of the year, but in the summer she works at the Salt Box Farm tending to and selling the blueberries. We like this because.........well because we reap the benefits too. 

This morning, thanks to Joanie, I made one of my favorites. Blueberry muffins.

Hot out of the oven!

Looking good enough to eat and oh so pretty on my Aunt Doris' platter. Took a a tip from Pioneer Woman and displayed the muffins on a white platter.

And a white plate.

Seriously, the butter just melted in!

Can't wait any longer! The jury is in. Delicious.

The best thing is...............

There's more in the oven and I still have enough blueberries to make another batch. Thanks Joanie and thanks to Colleen (whoever you are) for posting on allrecipes. I didn't do the cinnamon topping. Just sprinkled a little sugar on top before baking. Pefecto.

Next time I'll take another tip from Pioneer Woman......don't shoot the food so close!

Last Night

Mom emailed last night to let me know if looked like a nice sunset. Glad she did, as I might have missed it (had popped in for a break from weeding out back and found her message). Just lovely.

Sunset Meadows.

Thursday again. Weekend is almost here. Can you hear it calling?